Jacques Martin and NHL referees might be in the middle of a rocky phase in their relationship right now. After Montreal lost to the Rangers 5-3 on Saturday night, Martin tore into the officials for not seeing things more in Montreal’s favor as the two teams went after each other early in the game.

For one Montreal writer, they found Martin’s tactics of blaming officials for the loss to be, well, a loser’s game.

Red Fisher of the Montreal Gazette sounded off on Martin as the team prepares for the youthful Edmonton Oilers tonight. Fisher didn’t hold back in taking Martin to task imploring that Martin save the criticism for another time and just do his job as a coach. He also says that by calling out the officials, Martin is setting it up to not get the benefit of the doubt again.

That much in itself is assuming that referees are going to be vengeful against a team (or player) which in itself would be rather unprofessional. The last thing we need is to have another set of fans crying, “Conspiracy!” any time there’s a call that goes against their team. It’s bad enough when Vancouver and Detroit fans do that, we don’t need another pack of tinfoil hatters out there.

Instead, the Habs should just get back to doing what they always do. Play tough defense, pick their moments to score, and hope that Carey Price can save their skin against a wildly confident Oilers team. Everyone, writers included, should learn to stop living in fear of officials and just play the game.

The job of an NHL referee is generally to try and go through a game and to not be noticed at all. Sure, make your calls and whistle for penalties and point for the goals but you don’t want fans to know your name going into the game and you certainly don’t want them leafing through the game program to look up your name after a bad call. In the case of Stephane Auger, we all got to know his name really well last year thanks to Alex Burrows.

Burrows accused Auger of having a personal vendetta against him after a particularly tough Canucks game, a 3-2 loss to Nashville, in which Burrows was booked for three minor penalties, two in the third period, one of which led to the Predators go-ahead goal. In Burrows’ checkered career, this game could qualify as the low point of it all venting his frustrations in bombastic style after the game.

Tonight, Auger is set to be on the ice for a Canucks game a full year to the date since the game in question. It’s the first time he’s done a game Burrows has played in since then and if you think they haven’t taken notice of this in Vancouver, you’re greatly mistaken.

“It’s not a big deal to me, really,” Burrows said after this morning’s game-day skate at Nassau Coliseum. “It’s something I have put in the past. Tonight I am not going to approach the game differently. It’s a game where we have to get back on the winning track and I am going to do everything I can to do that.”

Burrows does not anticipate having any kind of chat with Auger before or during tonight’s game.

Burrows has been a changed guy this year. His chirping and borderline dirty has disappeared and he’s still playing good, solid, physical hockey. His goal output compared to last year is a bit down but he’s still a key contributor to the Canucks attack. That said, not everyone in Vancouver is excited to see a game with Auger prominently involved once again. Iain MacIntyre of Puckworld voices his thoughts on Auger’s work.

Regretably, it had to happen at some point. Clearly, the NHL isn’t going to fire Auger of they’d have done so last summer. So the referee is here for a while and so are the Canucks and Burrows. Still, a year without Auger was not long enough.

I’m disappointed to have Auger work the Canucks. But not because he’ll act unfairly towards Burrows, but because Auger is consisently erratic and low-grading, as revealed by the NHL’s annual decision not to schedule him for playoff games. Long before the Burrows incident, I considered Auger and Brad Meier the two most frustrating referees in the league. And lest anyone think I have a low regard for NHL officials, generally, I actually think they do a pretty good job. My favorites include Kelly Sutherland, Tim Peel and Tom Kowal, and most of the senior officials — Dave Jackson, Paul Devorski, Don van Massenhoven and Dave Jackson.

Does that mean we’ll hear cries of “Fire Auger!” at the first bad call of the night against the Islanders? Well, we might’ve heard that that from Canucks fans regardless of the referee involved. Canucks fans being as fiery as they are would be likely to yell no matter what. Still, it’ll be fascinating to see how things play out should things get out of hand at all. If the Islanders want to test their luck, stirring things up with Burrows might not be the worst idea.